Face the "Heat"

People who read this probably think that I just give every movie a good review, but the truth is I'm actually a fairly tough reviewer. I've just been lucky (and selective) enough to see lots of good ones over the past several days.

Last night I saw Michael Mann's "Heat" which was REALLY good, though it could have used some trimming. I thought "Colaterall" was great, but "Heat" kicked its butt (hell, it had Al Pachino AND Robert deNiro!). Many directors seem to start out so-so and get better, while others start with a bang and then go into a downward spiral (Shyamalan, anyone?). Frankly, after reading so-so reviews of "Miami Vice" I think Mann might sadly be the downward-spiral type. Still, after seeing "Heat" I can safely say Mann's spiral started from pretty high up, so it'll take him a while to hit the rock-hard ground. Maybe he'll even be able to pull up and wow us again. We can hope.

I also saw a Korean film called "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring" that was also really good, about the life of a Buddhist monk growing up. Though subtitled, the film didn't really need to be, since it was told with hardly any dialogue. It was kind of like watching a long and REALLY good 290, since everything was done so deliberately without words. Highly recommended for people who are into eastern peace stuff, or even people who like looking at lakes and pretty mountains. Hell...if you're the patient type, you should check it out. Plus, it was nice to see snakes finally symbolize something good instead of evil (snakes are so COOL...why does the Bible have to give them a bad wrap in western film?).

Also, I'm realizing now I've spent WAY too much time writing my own fun feature movie scripts this summer instead of working on developing a solid 310 script, but that's OK. I'll just work on it REALLY REALLY hard before Friday next week.